Last Chance
by Saku
Summary: Kurama comes home to find a broken down and very intoxicated Hiei in desperate need of his help. What happened to him? And can Kurama save him in time?
1. last chance 1

"_Last Chance"  
_

Kurama

I knew right away something was wrong. I could feel it the second I walked into my  
house and tossed the keys on the kitchen table. My white cat, Crow, ran past my feet  
and out the open door, her fur on end. I could see a trail of it through the kitchen and  
hallway. Crow didn't scare easily and I closed the door and locked it. My eyes  
surveying every corner of the house as I walked through it cautiously, my shoes still on. I heard a faint electronic buzzing from the living room and saw the television was on. The channel was fuzzy and I grabbed the remote to turn it off.

"Hello?" I called. If Shuiichi, my brother, were here he would have answered me and I already crossed out the possibility it was mother or step dad because they weren't scheduled to come visiting until next week. "Shuiichi?" I called once again, running my fingers along the wall as I made my way upstairs. The house remained quiet. I sighed, a little agitated. There was someone here and the lack of response I was getting made me suspect one of two things: There was a robber in the house or I was crazy.

I stood at the top of the stairs and psyched myself to go further when I noticed the alcohol cabinet next to me had been opened and there were several bottles missing. The thief must have found what he'd been looking for. "Damn. Those were expensive too." I mumbled to myself. Sniffing the air, I made my way to my room. I stopped about three quarters of the way there when I caught a familiar scent. Sweet and musty. Only one person went by that scent…Hiei.

"Hiei?" I leaned into my room, hands on the doorframe. I couldn't see him from my position in the doorway and I took a step inside. "Hiei are you still here?"

I stepped on something small and sharp and I bent down to pick it up. It was a bottle lid from one of the vodka bottles in my cabinet.

"Hiei, where are you?"

I ventured further in and found a familiar frame dressed in black, crouched against the far corner wall. I kneeled down in front of him and searched his face with a questioning gaze. Hiei's eyes were defiantly closed and I touched his knee to get a response. "Are you alright? Why are you here in the corOh!" I pulled my hand away when I felt Hiei's damp knee. "Why are you wet?" I asked, looking at my palm. I gasped at the thick, red liquid that stained it.

Hiei opened his eyes then, and shot me a cold stare with bloodshot eyes. I touched his cloak with my other hand. It too was soaked in blood. Only then did I notice the growing pool of crimson forming around my friend's seated body. His arms hung loosely at his sides. His eyes narrowed as he watched me examine him.

"Oh my god, Hiei, what happened this time?"

Hiei was visibly out of it and though I couldn't see any bottles, I knew Hiei had been drinking the alcohol I kept for special occasions. Hiei mumbled some protests as I began to undress him of his cloak.

"Kurama, no. Leave me be. It hurts a little…."

His breath reeked of alcohol and I wrinkled my nose at the smell. "Hiei your injuries need tending to. I'm not leaving you like this so you can paint my carpet with your blood."

"Don't touch me. I'm healing fine like this." He babbled.

I watched him pry my hands away like a child and rub his eyes afterwards, smearing some of his own blood across his eyelids. He was oblivious to this and sighed heavily before leaning back and smacking his head against my wall. He winced and looked at me with sad eyes. I was speechless, never in my life had I seen Hiei with alcohol in his system like this.

"Hiei, sit up. I'm going to need to get at your wound." I motioned for him to lean forward and he blinked at me and shook his head.

"It hurts…a little."

"Okay, but I need you to sit up anyway. Let me see you."

Hiei sat up, wincing as he did so. I helped him out of his cloak and gasped at how heavy it was. The dark fabric was literally dripping blood. "Oh Hiei…." I whispered, watching the liquid drip from my friend's coat to the carpet. Coming to my senses finally, I got up and ran across the hall to the washroom, tossing the garment into the sink. Returning with dark coloured towels and a wet cloth and gauze, I kneeled in front of my injured friend. Hiei was trying to remove his shirt without much success.

"Here, let me help." I grasped the bottom of his shirt and pulled it up. He raised his bandaged arms for me but cried out suddenly when the shirt reached his chest.

"What's wrong?" I stopped pulling the fabric.

Hiei looked down and pulled the shirt himself. I could see him trying desperately not to scream in agony as I witnessed chunks of torn flesh being peeled back away from Hiei's short. The higher he lifted, the more cuts appeared. Tiny slices, each about the length of a pinky finger riddled his torso. He looked like he had been chewed up and spit out again. The flesh was attempting to heal itself and had caught the fabric of his shirt in the process.

"You've been mutilated…who did this!" I was horrified at the sight of my friend so terribly maimed. I gently dabbed at Hiei's blood-soaked torso with the cloth. Hiei held his breath and lifted his shirt clean over his back. He flung it away, hoping I'd miss the fact that it was covered in torn skin as well as blood. I stopped dabbing and circled around him to get a better look at his back. It too, was shredded. It was a wonder Hiei had any blood left in his small body….

"It hurts, Kurama. Only a little. I took your spicy drinks to kill the pain. You weren't home…." He reached a bandaged arm to point at my open window. I swallowed a lump forming in my throat and continued to apply pressure to the most serious looking wounds on Hiei's back. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. Who did this, Hiei? Tell me!"

"It doesn't matter…not now."

"It matters! Damn, Hiei, you're bleeding to death and I can't" I pressed a towel down on him and pushed. " I can't apply pressure to every cut. At this rate you're losing way too much blood. There are too many Hiei, whoever did this to you knew what they were doing. They wanted you dead and by all rights you should be by now. Can you stand?"

"No."

"You haven't tried. Come on, you must try. I'll help you."

Hiei closed his eyes and leaned into me, I practically lifted him myself and once he was on his feet I led him to the washroom and sat him on the edge of the tub.

"Don't move. I'm going to run the water and grab the phone, okay? Please stay where you are. I'll be back in a second." I told him, running the taps and testing the water wasn't too hot. I silently prayed Hiei would get through this alive. Who would do this? Who?

**Hiei **

I was bleeding all over his tiled floor. The floor was white. WAS white. How appropriate that it was my blood that stained it now. I laughed. What was I doing here? Had I not been enough of a burden to Kurama? Now I had to sit here in the water-room and wait while he frantically tried to figure out a way to save me…. No. This wasn't right. I had come here for the spicy drink. I had watched Kurama hide them by the stairs. He tried to explain to me what it was but I wasn't really paying attention. All I heard was that it helped with pain. Emotional and physical. And hell, was I ever in pain. My mind wasn't as sharp as it should be, I knew. I assumed it was a small price to pay. I had drunk three out of four bottles, each one a different taste. I couldn't handle it all at once. Maybe there was a certain order you were supposed to drink them…I wouldn't know. Anyway, Kurama hadn't noticed the fact that I threw up on his bedroom floor either. Maybe that was a good thing. I heard Kurama talking on the phone below me and felt my head swim. The room was spinning slowly. I held my head in my hands, feeling the pull of caking blood tugging at my skin as I moved. I was so tired….

I found myself rubbing my eyes for the zillionth time since I had the drinks. Suddenly I was falling, the room spun and I saw white cover my vision. I fell backwards into the tub. The warm water rushed to overtake me. Water seeped into my eyes, my ears, my mouth and nose…I coughed, exhaling oxygen and inhaling unbreathable liquid. I coughed again and gasped for much-needed air but found I couldn't support myself. The water turned pink as I thrashed about the tub, my wounds stinging and my bandaged hands sliding on porcelain, unable to grip. I inhaled more water and a nauseous feeling swept over me. I felt my hands sliding down the bathtub sides, into the water as I repeated one word over and over in my head:

"Kurama!"

(Saku Note: this story is a teaser…unless the powers that be deem it worthy of continuing…that would be my fans: YOU! )


	2. Chapter 2

"_Last Chance: part two"_

* * *

_Wow! Ten of you reviewed in the first 5 days this fic has been put up. Thanks so much! (Especially _Dragon Tamer103088 , _you don't have to beg! Hee hee. _) _That must mean I am obligated to continue… bows Very well. Saku_

_

* * *

_

**Kurama**

I had an awful time trying to get a hold of the others. Yusuke was out of town for the weekend with Keiko and neither Kuwabara nor his sister were answering the phone at all. I couldn't rely on Boton, I knew, she didn't even know how to use a phone let alone have one. I didn't want to leave Hiei alone for longer than a few minutes and since it was now clear I was on my own, I headed back up the stairs, two by two.

What I found upon my return was completely unexpected. Water soaked the hall carpet in front of the door and Hiei was thrashing about in the overflowing bathtub, completely submerged and unable to get his head above water.

"AH! Hiei!" I threw myself into the room at the tub's side and grabbed him by the shoulders, lifting his torso out of the water. Hiei's body heaved as he gasped for air. As soon as he took a breath, he threw up. I held him up over the edge of the tub as he shook violently.

"It's okay. It's all right now. Just breathe."

Hiei coughed and coughed, having the worst time breathing and I held onto him as though his life depended on it. "Breathe, Hiei. Don't quit. Breathe."

Water flowed freely everywhere, escaping the bathroom and I winced at the potential water damage. Hiei grasped onto me tightly as if to say 'thanks' and I felt his body shiver, then grow slack against me. His breaths were ragged and strained, but steady. I held onto him and reached one arm to turn the taps off. It was a good thing the water had been warm. Things could have gotten a lot worse….

"Hiei, are you alright now? Can you stand on your own?" I let his feet touch the ground. Not for the first time, I found myself grateful that my friend was as small as he was. If this had been Kuwabara, I would have been in big trouble.

"Ughn…" Hiei moaned, not even trying to stand. "…You left me." He looked up at me with distrustful red eyes.

I felt a pang of guilt. "I tried to call Yusuke to help me. He's not around so it's just you and me this time."

Hiei snorted his displeasure. "You called Urameshi? He's useless…I need no help." He decided now was a good time to start trying to walk and he pushed me away. I let him stagger towards the doorway and looked around at the mess that was my bathroom.

I used whatever towels were hanging up in the bathroom and threw them about the floor hoping to soak up at least some of the bloody water. Then I carried the remaining towel and a roll of gauze out into my room where Hiei had stumbled. He was holding his head and coughing.

I noticed his wounds beginning to bleed again and I wrapped him in the towel and hugged him, trying to use my body to keep at least some of the wounds closed. He didn't seem to mind. Either that or he was too drunk to care.

So far I had done a bang up job of helping Hiei. Why was I always screwing things up when it came to him? Wasn't I supposed to be the responsible one? I couldn't even keep my best friend from being hurt, he had to show up at my place to ask for help. Feeling guilty, I held onto him as though letting him go would kill him.

**Hiei**

Kurama was hugging me. What a weird feeling, a hug. Holding someone out of necessity was completely different from wanting to hold onto them. Even in my dizzy state, I knew that. I didn't stop him though. Quite frankly, I didn't have the energy to do anything other than breathe… and even that I wasn't doing a very good job of. I coughed again, still not able to get all the water out of my lungs. My wounds stung like hell but the spicy drinks made it a little easier to ignore them. Man, was I tired now.

"I did want to get the blood off of you. The water helped with that at least. I can see your wounds now. There are so many..." Kurama commented, letting me go and rubbing the towel annoyingly into my cuts.

"Ow! Cut that out!" I snapped, pulling away and taking the towel off my back. The force of my actions seemed to throw me off balance and I fell over, landing on the bed. Thankfully, human beds were soft, because the spicy drinks had depleted my ability to stay vertical. Kurama sighed loudly and I ignored him, attempting to make my way to the pillows. How I wanted to just curl up in them and sleep my life away. No one would miss me, I convinced myself. Kurama seemed to think my idea was funny or something because he started to laugh. I turned and gave him my best 'not amused' glare. Kurama shook his head and grabbed some white fabric from off the floor and brought it to me.

"I would give you this and tell you to bandage yourself up but since you drank way too much I'm afraid of what you might do to yourself." He smiled that fox-like smile at me and I snatched the ball of fabric from his hand. He turned away as I fumbled with the buckles on my belts and eventually peeled off my wet pants and undergarments. Kurama held out his hand to receive them. "I'll put your clothes in the dryer for you. Bandage yourself up and crawl into the bed, you can stay here as long as you need to recover. Here, wear these." He tossed me some fresh garments from a drawer and waited for me to put them on. The pants were easier to put on than the shirt. There appeared to be less cuts on my lower half, but they were no less painful. Most of them had stopped bleeding. The few that continued to bleed, did so into the gauze that I began covering them with. They would stop eventually. Until then, I wouldn't wear the shirt, I decided. I just hoped I had enough blood left to live through the night…. Kurama couldn't know this, of course. Funny how even in my weakest state, I managed to keep secrets from him.

"Who did this to you, Hiei? What awful being could slice you up like you were nothing?" He grew serious again, his green eyes turning to face me, demanding an answer. I said nothing. He watched me as I removed the old and very wet bandages from my arms and replaced them with fresh ones.

"Hiei I have a right to know who could hurt you like this. Don't you think I deserve to know? Why would you come here if you did not need my help?"

I ignored him and dabbed at my chest with the towel he gave me. The cuts there were pink and swollen. Some were still bleeding freely, but not as much as before. Kurama's blue blanket had turned purple in places because of my blood.

I glanced up at him. He had his eyes closed. I could tell he was frustrated. But I couldn't find any words to say to him. What _had_ happened to me? One minute I was fine, sitting in the shade of a huge tree near Genkai's place. The next minute I was…? I thought hard. The next minute I was…in pain. Hundreds of tiny cuts appeared out of nowhere on my body. But my clothing wasn't torn….Whatever cut me, did so from inside my clothing.

"Who was it!" Kurama's voice shook me from my thoughts. "I swear I'll kill them right now. Just give me a goddamn name, Hiei!"

"I….It wasn't anyone." Wow. Brilliant answer, I thought. But it was true. I looked away from Kurama, somewhat intimidated by him.

Kurama clenched his fists and walked out of the room, not saying another word. I threw the towel away, disgusted with myself. Why was I here? I glanced at the open window and shivered. I didn't want to be here anymore, I realized. But could I leave?

**Kurama**

Now I was angry. I had been frustrated before when Hiei didn't talk to me. But this was just ridiculous. Sure, he was drunk and in pain… I sighed, realizing I was being a bit unreasonable. I grabbed a glass from the cupboard downstairs and filled it with cold water from the fridge. Hiei needed liquids. It wasn't like him to show up like this. Not that I minded, but the fact that Hiei was in the state he was, scared me. Why wouldn't he tell me who caused him this kind of pain? Didn't he trust me? I left the water and made my way downstairs with Hiei's clothes and threw them in the dryer.

Hiei needed to eat something. I grabbed a package of crackers from the kitchen shelf on the way back up. What if it was someone I knew; Someone that I had met before but suspected nothing from? What if Hiei had some long forgotten enemy from Makai who decided to reappear and kill him? It was possible, what with Hiei's track record for accumulating friends. One thing was for sure, I was glad whoever it was failed. Not for the first time, I considered what my life would be like without Hiei. I didn't like it.

Shaking my head, I headed back upstairs with the water and crackers. At the top of the stairs, my feet sunk into wet carpet and I cursed to myself, flicking on the bathroom light. I put the crackers and glass down on the nearby shelf and began picking up the soaked towels and tossing them in the sink. I was already wet so I just reached my arm into the tub and yanked on the chain to empty the tub. After wringing out the towels, mopping up the remaining water, and cleaning the bathtub with cleanser, the room looked a lot better. All I had to worry about now was the hall carpet. I tossed the towels into the hamper in the hall and went back downstairs to grab the small fan from the living room. I plugged it into the wall upstairs and set it on the floor, hoping that would be enough to dry the rugs overnight.

With a shiver, I fetched Hiei's water and crackers from the bathroom and made my way wearily back to my friend's side. As I suspected, the small youkai was already asleep. His mouth hung open haphazardly and one arm was slung off the mattress. The roll of gauze was in the other hand, half unrolled onto the blankets. I smiled at his pale features and examined his wrapping job. _Not bad._ Considering he was far too drunk to even stand, Hiei had done a good job of securely covering his most serious cuts about his torso and forearms. _He has had too much practise._ I realized sadly.

I sat next to him and watched him breath softly. "Oh Hiei, why do you hurt so? Won't you tell me in your sleep if not when you're conscious?" I scooped up the remaining gauze from the bed and tossed it on my nightstand with the glass of water and bag of crackers. I shivered again and looked down at my own clothes. They were wet and freezing cold. _Well no wonder._ I had been so focused on taking care of Hiei that I had given up all care for myself. It took this long to realize my own body was weak and weary too. Fatigue had caught up with me. I changed into night clothes at the foot of the bed before deciding it would be better for me to sleep next to my friend. That way I could keep an eye on him through the night. If he needed me I would be there for him this time.

"Hiei." I whispered, crawling under the covers next to him. " I won't let anything else happen to you." I let my hand fall over his and I vowed not to let it go all night.

TBC (I know I know, bad Saku! I'm sorry for writing such a crappy ending to thisentry but I seriously DIDN'T KNOW WHERE TO CUT IT OFF! I have more to put up, keep check'n back plz.I'm seriously staying up tonight to write more. Saku )


End file.
